Illegal exchanges using SIM boxes imported from China busted in Bhiwandi

Several illegal SIM box exchanges were busted in Bhiwandi by Anti-Extortion Cell of the Thane Police Crime Branch.

The SIM box operator can route international calls through the VoIP (Voice over IP such as internet) connection and connect the call as local traffic, allowing the box's operator to bypass international rates and often undercut prices charged by local mobile network operators

Pradeep Sharma and his team members raided around 30 places and found 25 exchanges operating illegally. Another 10 exchanges operating in Bhiwandi were busted.

The raids were carried out in the areas like Gaibi Nagar, Diwan Shah Nagar, Shanti Nagar, and Sai Nagar areas of Bhiwandi on Monday night.

Raids are still going on at some more locations.

As of now, 35 to 50 people are being questioned by the police team for involvement in running these exchanges.

Thousands of international calls are routed from these exchanges everyday.

ILLEGAL SIM BOXES

The SIM box is illegally imported from China and misdeclared while importing it and shown as amplifiers or music systems.

The accused involved use local SIM cards in the SIM boxes and are procured using false documents. Many times, documents of poor labourers and workers are used for procurement of these SIM cards.

Controls of these exchanges and servers are with handlers operating from China and the US.

Chinese handlers route calls through servers and pass it to the SIM boxes and calls received by people in India would reflect a local number.

DANGEROUS USE

Gangsters operating from overseas use this to route calls to threaten people for extortion.

Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar had also revealed the calls he received from Dawood Ibrahim and Anees would show local number so the internet calls made from Karachi were being diverted through SIM boxes.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY

Local handlers track and divert traffic to SIM boxes through computerised applications.

Those running the exchanges are paid according to the traffic diverted from their exchange.

Security and privacy are both at stake due to the illegal use of SIM boxes.

THANE POLICE

Thane Police started investigating when they registered a case against gangster Suresh Pujari for threatening a businessman for extortion.

The call was traced to a local Orissa number, when further probed, they found a SIM box exchange that had diverted the international call.